My first area, Colleyville, is one of the wealthiest towns in the metroplex. The mission home is in Colleyville. The mission home is where the mission president and his wife live. Typically, special dinners are held there as well as incoming and outgoing missionaries. Most of the time, however, the mission home is not a frequented place by missionaries. The mission office has all the supplies and MAIL. Sometimes, missionaries find reasons to get to the mission office for that reason.
My trainer, Sister Camille Clark, had been in the area for three months when I got there. That is a good amount of time to stay in one area. She ended up staying with me for another three months, making her time in Colleyville a total of six months. I never stayed in any of my areas for longer than four and a half months. I went stir crazy in the area I stayed in for that long, so I can only imagine how Sister Clark must have felt being in Colleyville for six months.
The first Sunday I arrived, an adorable little redheaded fireball named Sarah was getting baptized. She reminded me so much of my adorable little redheaded fireball SISTER named Sarah. I think that's why I loved her from the start. After that, Sister Clark and I spent hours daily tracting. Door to door knocking is what we refer to as tracting. Talking to people who are outside of their homes, just out and about, is what we refer to as contacting. In Colleyville, the majority of our time each day was spend tracting and contacting. Since most of Colleyville was made up of very wealthy religious people, most of Colleyville slammed their doors in our faces. It was a huge wake up call the first day I got to Texas.
It was July 11th and I'm pretty sure it was at least 102 degrees outside. Sister Clark asked me if I wanted to unpack, but I was so eager to get out and work that I said, "NO WAY! Let's go work!" She took me to an area to tract. It was a street full of million dollar homes, at least. After the first ten doors slammed in my face, I thought, "What is going on? They won't even allow me to tell them why I'm here! I don't even have time to bear my testimony!" Well, an hour and a half or two hours of this went by and literally not ONE DOOR opened. Not a single person allowed us to talk to them. My discouragement was growing. It happens to all "greenies" (that's a brand new, just out, little missionary). Greenies go out assuming that everyone will at least listen, even if they're not interested.
Well, my friends, that is a great misconception in Texas. I turned to Sister Clark and said, "I think we should pray." She said, "Ok..." and I began to pray, right there on the sidewalk in the middle of this neighborhood. I remember asking this, "Will you please just let SOMEONE talk to us? Just talk to us." I ended my prayer and we knocked on the next door. A skeptical woman named Lori answered the door. She spoke with us through the crack of her door for the first fifteen minutes before we convinced her that we wouldn't hurt her or anything.
Lori asked us about every misconception and false doctrine in the book; polygamy (no, we don't), temple ceremonies (they're sacred, not secret), that Mormons aren't Christian (we are), that we don't believe in the Bible (we do)...and more. We ended up talking to Lori on her porch for nearly two hours. We taught her a little bit about every single lesson. The word of wisdom, the plan of salvation, the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith, the origination of the Book of Mormon, etc. It was SO exciting for me. Heavenly Father answered my prayer IMMEDIATELY.
I miss that, a lot. My prayers as a missionary were answered on the spot a huge percentage of the time. It was so incredible. After five or six months of that, immediate answers to prayer became "normal" to me. It was easy, unfortunately, to take advantage of that and forget how miraculous it was. Now that I'm home, my prayers are still answered, but not the same way. It's really indescribable. Missionary prayers are powerful because missionaries are set apart representatives of Jesus Christ. He lends His power to us for the brief period of time that we spend serving Him. As a returned missionary, that is what I miss the most. My closeness and relationship with my Savior.
Lori Otano and her family, Andre (husband) and Katie (daughter, my little sister :) became our good friends. We visited them frequently. Lori would always give us water, feed us lunch and dinner, made us "experimental dessert." Lori took care of Sister Clark and I like we were her own children. Later on in my mission, I surprise visited them and Katie called her dad saying, "DAD! Get home! Your other daughter is here!!!" He replied excitedly, "SISTER CARDINAL?" It was so sweet. A few minutes later he screeched to the curb, jumped out of his car and said, "I broke every traffic law to get here!" I laughed. My heart was so happy. I didn't just make friends in Texas. I found family. Lori, Andre, Katie, I love y'all!
About Me
- Belle
- I love the lessons that life throws at me. Life is a big classroom and I'm in it to learn! I'm interested in bettering myself; being a progressive. One of the quotes that gets me motivated is this: "Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It's our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory with in us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from OUR fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (edited the way I like it).